CVICU Staff = The Best

I definitely can’t write about Nolan’s journey without taking the time to speak about the staff at the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit. Everyone, and I mean, everyone there treated us like royalty. They were polite and thoughtful, they took time to answer our questions, and always asked if we needed anything. Shoot, CVICU even had free snacks and whatnot! Cartons of chocolate milk became my daily habit…yum. The nurses we had were amazing, every single one. We would talk about what the near future would look like for Nolan, we’d talk about what brought them to Charlotte (if they weren’t originally from here), we’d talk about music, tv, and movies. Sometimes things got funny: like when they’d ask me where I worked. When I’d answer hospice, they’d all act the same way: “Oh my gosh, I don’t know how you do it!” and I’d be like, “Really? Really. You got kids here with chests open and on fifty billion machines and you ask how I do it?!” Or even better, there was one night I was with Nolan and I was just WIPED OUT…so I sat in a chair in the room with my head on the window sill and I was out cold. So the nurse turned down the lights and stepped right outside the room to the nurse’s station. I awoke a little while later to overhear a couple of the nurses talking about their dating lives, and it made me laugh. They’re both human and superhuman at once.

I do want to talk in particular, though, about one nurse: Stirling. She was Nolan’s first nurse after his surgery and she did a lot to make us feel at home at the CVICU. The first thing you notice about her is that she works really hard, yet is always really happy and positive. And she loved the mess outta Nolan, you could tell. One day we were talking with her about how Hudson wouldn’t be able to meet Nolan for a long while due to the flu ban. So what did Stirling do? She made Hudson a little card and signed it “From Nolan.” It blew my mind. I mean, Stirling was busy keeping Nolan alive, and if that’s all she wanted to do, that would be a-ok with me. But she went way above and beyond that. It was so kind and thoughtful. And she kept on doing things like that: getting him socks or a little hat to keep him warm, or finding fun blankets to put in his bed. Even when Stirling had to rotate on to another patient, she always made time to come visit Nolan. We were blessed to have her as Nolan’s first nurse: she’s the prime example of what makes the CVICU at Levine Children’s Hospital so great: we really felt like VIPs there, even though we didn’t necessarily want to be there, if you know what I mean.

Thank you so much, Chris. What a gift it was to care for Nolan and get to know your family. I am humbled by your kind words. Hope y’all are doing well and enjoying being 2/3 of the way done with surgeries 🙂